Putin and the West

[Monty]

There's a big difference between Russia launching an ICBM or a tactical battlefield nuke via a cruise missile or an artillery piece. With a tactical nuke NATO would find out after the event, and with an ICBM they would see it launch. Scary sh!t either way

[D41]

The Tsar Bomba test is up there on YouTube if you're interested.....50+ megaton blast. It's fairly impressive to say the least.

[Jack]

that test was done with only 50% of the possible yield , the tamper on the secondary core was titanium rather than uranium 238. Todays nuclear weapons are an awesome and terrifying mix of fission and fusion , some the yield is programmable without changing any physical parts of the device .

[D41]

Oh...I hadn't realized that it was only using half it's potential. I was just reading about the current dial-a-blast devices - which makes a lot of sense when you think about it.

[StMarks]

that test was done with only 50% of the possible yield , the tamper on the secondary core was titanium rather than uranium 238. Todays nuclear weapons are an awesome and terrifying mix of fission and fusion , some the yield is programmable without changing any physical parts of the device .

It seems a rather obtuse adjustment imho.: If those weapons are launched, the adjustment will effectively be "set to everything dead, or everything very dead".
It's not the awesome destructive & lethal impact that these weapons individually display, that presents the greatest risk. The greatest danger is from the sabre rattling powermongers who have control over them. If one is launched, anywhere, the temptation for some ego driven politician to retaliate has to be our real fear doesn't it.?

[D41]

In essence that's the whole MAD concept coming into effect...which has been around much longer than nuclear weapons have.... and so far, so good.
But you may have a point...I don't even want to think about where we would be if Trump were still in office. We may well have dodged the proverbial bullet there.

[Kwacky]

This is a long interview but it's very interesting. An Australian volunteer talks through his experience of joining the foreign fighters in Ukraine

[video]https://youtu.be/oTD_c57EWck[/video]

[Kwacky]

There's been a few missile strikes recently deep into Crimea. The latest one was 200km from the front line at Novofedorivka airbase.

[Kwacky]

I didn't know what weapons they've been using but that Russian airbase has taken significant damage. It looks like they were parking up a load of aircraft ready for an offensive.

[Kwacky]

Satellite images suggest at least 9 aircraft were destroyed, possibly as many as 14.

Ukraine say it was a special forces operation.

[Kwacky]

3 alleged Russian agents were caught in Albania breaking in to a weapons factory.

It looks like they were caught because they cocked up what they were doing as two Albanian soldiers are in hospital with chemical burns.

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/al ... 022-08-20/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Kwacky]

Aleksandr Dugin's daughter has been killed tonight. Her car exploded and caught fire. He's the man behind the idea for Russia annexing Crimea and invading Ukraine.

It's not know what caused the car to explode but it's not hard to see why he and his family would be targets.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksandr_Dugin" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Kwacky]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian ... tion_camps" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

https://www.wired.com/story/satellites- ... ion-camps/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[D41]

Shocking....and I shouldn't be surprised but I am just a little bit. You'd think...or at least you'd hope, that people would've moved beyond that sort of thing at some point.

[duke63]

Britain invented concentration camps BTW. And Winston Churchill was party to that.

[D41]

The Boer War(s)..??

[Kwacky]

Curious

[StMarks]

If he wanted a long and healthy life, perhaps he shouldn't have been so vocal in Lukoil's criticism of the Russian invasion.?

Oh & Gorby was half Ukranian (on his mother's side)....... Just sayin...

[D41]

What's the difference between one dollar and one ruble...??
Roughly one dollar.

[Kwacky]

Ukraine appears to have attacked on two main fronts: Kherson and Kharkiv. The reports suggest that the Ukraine attacks to the east have been very successful, getting very close to the Russian border.

News from the Kherson front is very very limited. Either it's not going well or Ukraine wants all of the attention on the Kharkiv offensive.

Kherson is the gateway to Crimea. I wouldn't be surprised if Ukraine plans to retake it depending on how both fronts go. What's interesting is that Ukraine has left the bridge in the East of Crimea alone. That bridge leads directly to Russia. Are they leaving an escape route for Russian forces to let them get out so the fighting isn't too bloody or do they hope Russia diverts troops to Crimea which will weaken their strength on other fronts?